This dream compounded when I fell in love with the song "Always" by Judd and Maggie, and when I discovered a dusty copy of The Pilgramage by Paulo Coelho in my favorite bookstore I knew that all signs pointed to yes. I had watched the pilgrims make their way down the Mallona Stairs to the Plaza Unamuno every day on my way to my apartment, and it would be my summer adventure to join them.

It seems intuitive that the best way to connect the dots of my experiences of two years living in Spain, is, to misuse a Spanish saying, to "make a bridge" between my home this year and last year and walk the 500 kilometers of the ruta del norte and the camino primitivo from Bilbao to Santiago de Compostela.